Life to me has always been dance, my passion. It began when I was born, infact people tell me that I came out of my mother’s womb dancing. My journey started off with Bharatnatyam, more forms of Classical and Indian dances and than finally to Bollywood but, my life changed completely after being involved professionally in the field of dancing at a very late age of 26 and I have never looked back.

My journey has been long but exciting. I am from a very small town Ranchi, infact Mahendra Singh Dhoni was one year senior to me in school and in any small town the only thing that parents would want you to do is to become an engineer or a doctor, thats what even my parents expected me to do. Later, I eventually got into engineering and I was excellent in it. I had started working with a corporate in Mumbai as a Business Analyst and was there for five years. One day while standing in line for food in our overpopulated canteen, I felt like being imprisoned. I immediately kept my plates down, went to my cabin, drafted a resignation letter, gave it and walked out. In between, I had started learning Jazz, Contemporary and Balley but my destiny took me to the USA in 2009 where I was searching for new things and came across Zumba. I perceived it to be an African dance form. I remember my first day at Zumba class. I saw around 80 people in a hall when I entered and was shocked to later find out that they had an obbessed instructor who was really good! The three things which attracted me towards Zumba were- all 80 people laughing and working out, an abbessed instructor and the music. I sticked to it and got trained as a Zumba Instructor in 2009-2012. I was fortunate enough to be chosen by the CEO of Zumba Fitness- Alberto Perlman. I shifted back to India as a Zumba Instructor.

My life journey has been weird, where I have been supported by unexpected people and not supported by close people which is normal. One thing is for sure, that your family wants the best for you but, my life has tricked me from being an engineer to a dancer and finally being a fitness trainer. The transition happened in 2008, when dance was not considered as a profession specially for an engineer. I did not have courage to tell my parents for two years but I had my sister who supported me full- fledgedly. Few of them were baffled by this decision of mine as there was no respect and money which is quite evident from the fact that my high flying job came down to 5000 per month which was tough. After two years of struggles I finally, had guts to tell my parents. They were shocked but did not not support me rather, helped me emotionally and mentally. Today, they check out every post on the social media and it is a proud feeling to find out that my dad is the first person to like it.

I admit that my work is the best work in this world as I get to teach dance, fitness and get a chance to promote the fact of being healthy and fit in an exciting way. South East Asia is my loci of training people. As a Zumba education specialist, well I am the only person to train anyone aspiring to become a Zumba Instructor.

Well my mother in law rocks Zumba in spite of being an arthritis patient. I have also trained a 50 year old lady from Goa to become an instructor and I also have a 16 year old girl as my student who aspires to become the instructor. Talking about the background we have people from all field to join this programme. We have special programmes for special age groups like we have Zumba kids for children between 4 years to 11 years, Zumbini is for the mother and her toddler while Zumba goal is for active old adults. There is regular Zumba for anyone and everyone.

Last year in a training, I met this lady who just had two feets and failed to get any step which made me judge mer. I thought she won’t be successful and that she is wasting money but she managed to get the license. Six moths later at an event in Bangalore, I saw her from the back stage and judged again that she won’t be good but, was taken aback when she went on stage taking the mike in her hand calling the hot boys on the stage and gather a good amount of crowd. She rocked it! Though she was not best but she kept the crowd rocking. I felt the blessed that day and was the happiest. I realised that anything is possible, stop judging. One of the shortcomings of my career is my hectic life as I dont get time for my personal life. My life is hotel rooms, flights and a suitcase. This has been going on for 2.5 years from now though I am lucky to have a supportive family and husband. I do miss my personal life but not complaining as, instructors are my family and that keeps me happy.

First thing is, you don’t need to have a background in dance for doing Zumba. I also am skeptical about the people who come with a closed mind that they know everything. My preference is to someone who is totally blank and comes with an open mind. One also needs to customise Zumba for Indians as we do not have a fitness background. Finally, practice is the essential part. It’s a two day license training but you need to work hard for a month before your test. Talking about my work hours, I work 24*7 as I am a workaholic person. All my meetings are scheduled in the morning while I like ending my day with a class dealing with my clients directly.

Me! I have always loved working and I have been blessed with very good mentors from day one, even as a software engineer. I have seen my mentors working smart and hard. You just cannot work 24 hours and work smart. You won’t get the result. You cannot work by yourself, if you do that you won’t be able to lead and drive the people around you. I have faced beautiful people arond me, the one who trained me Beto Perez and the one who certified me Alberto Perlman. I have seen them working hard and making people grow equally around them. Have high stamina, be happy to see your clients surpassing you, but work harder to again reach them.

Something very exciting has just happened. The creator of Zumba came to India on the 1st February, 2015 from Miami. I was fortunate to host him for the first time ever in India where 500 people had gathered for training which made a history. Being India specific, lets bring everyone to Zumba and minimise the health issues and complains. One needs to have time for oneself otherwise you might get a heart attack.

I know it is very difficult to choose an alternate career but if you select it, stick to it. Be smart in your choices, work very hard and be ready to take hardships and failures. Please be humble once you get success and do not forget the people who grew with you.